The axiom of Conservatism

To reaffirm the fundamental axiom of conservatism, which is - that the State is not an end but a means.Civil society is the end, and the State is the means to protect it. The social world emerges through free association, rooted in friendship and community life. And the customs and institutions that we cherish have grown from below, by the ‘invisible hand’ of cooperation. They have rarely been imposed from above by the work of politics, the role of which is to reconcile our many aims, and not to dictate or control them.